NO TRESPASSING
by LorathanaHelmsgate
Summary: Summary will be written a little later when I can tell where this story is going. Like my other story, this is just something I'm making up as I go.
1. Prologue

_** "Whoever's trespassin' on my land better high-tail it outta here! I know you're out there, I can smell ya!"**_

_ "Crap, its farmer Otis..." Whispered a young boy who was chosen for look out duty today. His feet skittered through the pine needles and dead foliage scattered along the ground as he darted through the woods._

_ Wind blew through a little girl's hair. Her frail arms hugged the branch of a large tree which towered high above thr ground and over the heads of two more boys. One short and skinny and the other tall and chubby. They smiled, calling up to her. "C'mon, Teresa! You're almost to the top!"_

_ "Give me a moment! The wind is swaying the tree..." The girl responds worriedly. Trees were fun to climb, however at this hight...it got rather scary. One wrong move and kersplat. She took a deep breath and held it as she hauled herself up another branch. The wind rustled her hand-me-down t-shirt while her blue eyes peeked up from her arms._

_ Teresa was amazed at how much the scenery changed when she rose just a foot or two. She could already begin to see the tops of the other, shorter trees! The beauty of it all seemed to calm her a bit. The quietness at this height was astounding, only disturbed by the occasional bird call and a very gentle breeze of cool spring air. But through the fresh green leaves which covered the old tree, she could see someone in the distance. And they were moving quicky..._

_ "Guys! Guys, we have to go! Farmer Otis is coming!" A faint shout sounded throughout the woods. The boys below were startled._

_ "Crap! Lets go, John! Teresa, we'll come back just stay there and hide! His eyesight is poor so if you stay quiet he won't see you!"_

_ "Oh gee, thanks! Just leave me here in a tree, thats totally okay." She retored with sarcasm as the boys ran off as fast as their feet could shuffle. Teresa gave a sigh. These boys were cowards...All except for one of them, who was always on guard to keep them out of trouble._

_ Darrel burst through the trees and into the small clearing below. "Guys! The farmer-...guys?" He looked around frantically. Those idiots were already gone..._

_ "They went that way." Teresa called boredly, pointing toward the north where she could see the road close by. _

_Darrel looked up in confusion, soon catching sight of Teresa high in the tree. His eyebrows raised. "Oh, Teresa...Why're you up there?" He asked._

_ She shook her head and rested her chin on the nearest branch like she had not a care in the world. "It was a dare. Don't ask why I agreed." She said, not wanting to admit she was tricked by those crafty buggars. They have good skill at goating people on, thats for sure. "Shouldn't you be running?" She asked, hearing Farmer Otis' complaints not too far off._

_**"I wouldn't loiter around here, you rascals...little young'uns like you are the tall man's favorite dinner! I'll bet a whole dollar he'll tie you up and serve you with cornbread and applesauce, hee, hee, heee! Put an apple in yer mouth and an' putcha on a silver platter with some greens and a SIDE OF GRAVY!"**_

_ "There he goes with his 'tall man' threats again. I swear this man is so old he's delusional." John whispered as he grabbed a tree branch._

_ "Well it doesn't help that we mess around on his land, either."_

_ "It gives him some good exercise to chase us around! Lord knows he needs it since all he does is sit on his porch and drink beer all day. Hes dang lanky but he sure has one heck of a beer gut." Both of them snickered quietly until they heard a loud kachack._

_**"Why don't you comere and coach me then, boy. My trigger finger could use some exercise."**_

_Darrel was just about to haul himself onto the first branch when the old man popped in at the far side of the clearing. Darrel's eyes stared straight at the dark barrels of the old man's shot gun. Both of them were frozen in their spots. The old man held his gun still as a statue. One could tell this was just sport for him. A buck and a turkey ripe for the pickin'._

_** "Aw, 're you scared little boy? Well you should be. I done told you to git offa my land but you young'uns don't care to listen. Things like this is what gets you shot. No more warnins this time, boy, I'm done with that."**_

_Darrel was shaking in his boots. This was the first time he had ever stood in the line of fire. Suddenly, he heard Teresa shout frantically, "Darrel! Don't just stand there, run!" And with a farewell glance, Darrel's feet moved on their own. Pushing him toward the tree line!_

_**"Oh, no you don't!"**__ Otis shouted, firing his gun. A loud pow echoed, causing flocks of birds to flee their nests. A shriek burst from Teresa's lungs as Darrel fell to the ground! Otis looked up at his new target and laughed. __**"Well, little miss. You know I almost didn't notice ya in that there tree. Sneaky little devil ain't 'cha?"**__ He took a long piece of grass from the ground and clamped it between his teeth, cocking his shotgun once again._

_ He raised it and fired again, shooting off half the branch Teresa sat on! Her heart jumped out of her chest as she leaned away quickly, trying her hardest to balance on what was left of her perch. Her hands flailed as she found herself slowly falling backward! Her feet finally left the branch and she fell a few feet, hitting what seemed like an old burnt limb. After regaining her breath from that blow to the stomach, she looked down in pain and found that the farmer was putting the last shell in his gun. She gripped the scorched branch, hanging on for dear life._

_ Otis cackled darkly. But suddenly, a snap of a twig. He stopped...__**"...Well, I see your friends came back for yeh. They're in for a big surprise, let me tell you." **__He clacks his gun closed and walks around the tree, moving toward the woods. __**"Why don'cha come on out, boys! Don't make me wait all day or I'm commin' after ya myself!"**__ He calls, raising his gun and ready to fire. There is no response. Just silence. _

_ After a few minutes, Otis grumbles impatiently and treks into the trees. All the while, Teresa whispers frantically to her downed comrade. "Darrel...Darrel! Darrel, are you alive?! Say something! Please!" Tears of fright and terror soaked her cheeks. She grew silent, holding her breath as Darrel raised his head ever so slightly._

_ "T-...Teresa..." He choked. Blood welled up in his throat and caused him to gag and cough. It spilled out fast. Teresa watched helplessly as he gripped his stomach, trying with no results to prevent his wound from bleeding. Teresa began to sob. They both thought he should be in terrible pain. But in truth he didn't know what he felt. He was too stunned to comprehend what just happened..._

_ The quiet surrounding them was shattered by a tremendous cry of terror and two quick gunshots. Teresa looked to the left, catching a glimpse of Otis backing over a pile of logs. She tried to see what he was so afraid of. She squinted her eyes to a dark area of the trees..._

_ Just as she saw movement, she noticed the area became blurry to her. And so did the rest of the scenery the longer she looked at this thing that slithered along the ground. Scratch that...'things'. There were more of them. Lots more. She held still, a hissing sound drowning out her hearing. She closed her eyes tight for a moment. She had to calm down. Sitting here being scared out of her mind wasn't helping the situation._

_ Teresa found the will to move her body again. It was time to leave the tree and get her friend some help immediately. She let herself down from her branch and paused. Something was odd about it...Wasn't it supposed to be scorched? N...nevermind. She must have seen it wrong. Teresa continued on her way down, dropping from the last branch and onto the ground with a thud. She recovered quickly and ran to Darrel's side._

_ Otis' voice sounded again, but this time cutting off with a blood curtling crack and the sound of painful choking. Teresa breathed heavily. What the heck was that?! Whatever it was, she would find out soon. The road was that way and she needed to get there with Darrel fast. She lifted Darrel's nearly limp body and pulled his arm over her shoulders. Lifting his heavy body was difficult, but she managed to get him up and was able to pull him along quickly despite his feet dragging in the dirt._

_ Blood trailed on the ground from Darrel's mouth and stomach, causing Teresa to quicken her pace. She huffed, her small body running out of energy. Suddenly, that hissing sound was back. Though very faint...she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a shadow on the ground which looked rather familiar. A pool of blood lay in it's center. Her gaze moved upward very slowly, knowing she would regret looking._

_ And she was right. Her stomach churned, Teresa on the verge of gagging heavily. Her mind was blank. And all she wanted to do now was upchuck her lunch where she stood. Otis' body hung limply from a sharp, broken tree branch. His face contorted and bloodied, stuck with the expression of wide-eyed astonishment. A leg was bent unnaturally, bone was sticking out of his arm and chest...freshly torn flesh dangling from his abdomen which was strangely empty._

_ Her legs trudged forward a few steps. She had to continue...but she couldn't. Her knees buckled and splashed in the fresh blood puddle, sending splatters everywhere. Her head hung low and she groaned with nausea. Her head was pounding. All other noise was blocked out by her gasping and blood pumping loudly through her ears. She leaned back a bit, feeling like she could fall to the ground and curl up in a ball any second. But she had to hold that thought._

_ There was something just ahead...she couldn't tell what it was exactly, her vision was too blurred with tears. She could see a white dot in the darkness where light should be. She blinked...and her heartbeat rose to it's peak. The darkness was closer in that split second. The white dot was larger now. It...looked like a person. But she couldn't make out the details of their face. "He-..." She breathed, holding her lunch down. "Help us...please! My friend is dying, he needs a doctor..."_

_ The person just stood there. What was he doing? "H-hey..." She groaned, bending over for a moment to let the queezy feeling pass. "Sir, can you hear me-...?!" Her face froze in surprise. When she looked up again, the stranger was standing right in front of her. The tears which blurred her eyes fell from her face and she could finally see clearly. But...for some strange reason, she still could not see this man's features. She had to crane her neck to see him, he was so tall._

_ Slowly, another shape of pale color rose from the mass of black that was his body. A hand hovered in front of her, fingers extended...was he offering to help? She hesitated for what felt like a very long time. Finally, her free hand rose up. Grasping onto the pale skinned hand of a strange, massive man. And then..._

_Black._


	2. Chapter 1: Coming Home to the Past

"So you didn't get the man's name? No memories of his appearance?"

"Nope. Not a thing."

"He didn't even drop anything, like a business card? You said he was a businessman, right?"

"I said he looked like one, not-...Look. He saved us, yes. However he could also be the one who strung up the old farmer like he was. Whoever that man is...I think its best if we just leave him be and go on with our lives."

"But it just doesn't add up! Maybe he knows something about how things went down...nothing normal could do something so brutal to a body...Heh. Hey. You think it was a sasquatch?"

Teresa shook her head as her friend har harred at his own joke. She gripped the strap of her purse and hung it over her sholder. "Well, it doesn't matter at this point. No use in diggin up things that are long in the past." She fixed her shirt and fluffed her hair up a bit before she went outside again.

"But wouldn't it be nice to at least find the guy who saved us so we could thank em?"

"Just give it up, boy. I'm going to the neighbors house now, you take care."

"Alright, thanks for stopping by, Teresa! Glad you're moving back after so long. Felt lonely without'cha!"

"Thanks, Darrel. Good to be back."

And with that, Teresa waved goodbye and stepped out the front door. Her feet pattered down the steps of his porch and she walked out to the edge of the street. Hardly anything changed over the years she was gone...it was like time stopped for her before her parents packed up their family and left. That incident left them weary of this part of the country and forced them to move to the city. Not a very pleasant place, but you sure saw many a new face.

Teresa walked in-stride with the horse that followed her along the other side of Darrel's fence. The brown and white horse lifted it's nose over the fence and he gently nipped at her purse strap. She grinned, surprised that the horse remembered. Teresa pet him gingerly and pulled a cracker from her small bag, raising her hand with the cracker flat in her palm. Coffee, named by Darrel's little sister in their younger days, grasped the cracker with his lips and pulled it in with a chomp.

She laughed quietly and rustled the horse's mane as he crushed the soft cracker between his teeth and nodded with contentment. It was then that Teresa glanced back at the tree line far across the yard. Back there was the path marched by her and the gang to sneak into Farmer Otis' orchard. Still there. Still so ominous...

After that day the farmer passed, she could only remember standing near the road far from the area he was killed. Not how she got there or who it was that took her there. But what she did remember very well was that odd feeling of being watched for the rest of the night. And...looking back...that feeling never really left. Even though _she_ left.


	3. Chapter 2: The Colbens

Teresa rang the doorbell to the Colben's residence. There wasn't an answer...which didn't make much sense. There were many cars in front of his house and some commotion going on around back. She heard from Darrel that John and Stan often went out hunting with a bunch of their high school friends, which Darrel always kind of avoided due to their rowdiness. Darrel was always the quiet type, the feature which made him the perfect candidate for being the scout in the orchard.

Deciding that she was waiting there in vain, Teresa moved off the brick porch and walked along the side of the house. Stopping at the wooden fence gate, she peered into their backyard through a peep hole like she always did when they were young. There stood a group of men covered from head to toe in camo, walking from the woods dragging what she presumed to be a fresh kill. An antler moved above the tall grass in the back as the buck slid along the ground and was hauled into the back of a metalic blue truck along with what looked like a plastic tub.

"Blegh..." Teresa whispered. She stood up straight and hung her arms over the fence. "Stan! John! How long do you expect me to wait here you idiots?!" She called with a serious face and tone. Another blast from the past, a phrase which was yelled many times when she and Darrel came over to play.

John looked up and squinted his eyes toward the side of the house. "Well, if it aint little miss bed head!" He called as he shut the truck's tailgate with a loud bang and turned to the trees. "Stan! Look who's here!" He shouted.

Stan stomped up the muddy, grassy slope which rose into his yard from the woods. He dusted off some dirt and set his gun to lean on the side of the truck after putting the safety on. " Well lookie there! Ol Bessie came back to town!" He joked, waving his hand to say it was alright to enter. "Come on over! You ever seen a buck? Come look at this eight pointer we got!" He said excitedly as Teresa unlocked the gate and came on through.

Teresa stepped through the grass and came to the truck, looking over the side in a cautious manner. "Is...eight points a lot? I didn't know you were keeping score." she said, looking away from the buck slowly. Stan laughed a bit. "Nah, by points we mean how many points there are on the antlers. Eight ain't a lot, but it sure is a good lookin buck. Gonna be some good eatin' later on. Cook what we want and freeze the rest for later. Anyway, whats brought you back to town? I thought your family didn't like it here after that incident."

"Moving out there wasn't my decision. I never wanted to leave here and I really missed my home town. So the moment I job, I saved up enough to come back. Though...I'm surprised I was able to get our old house back. I hear a good couple of families have been in and out of that place?"

"Sure enough. They all moved out as quickly as they moved in. Only staying for a few weeks. Something about snakes in the house, wasn't it John? Yeah. We saw animal control come by your house the other day and said nothings amiss, so you should be alright."

"Sounds good. Alright, I guess I should be getting home so I can unpack my stuff before it gets dark...Hey, could I ask you a favor? I need some help getting the big pieces of furniture out of the moving truck. Think you could help me out?"

"Sure thing! Just need to finish up here and we'll be out there in a bit."

"Alright, thank ya thank ya!" She replied with grattitude and waved, walking back toward the fence gate. Everyone waved back as the other three guys got into the truck and rolled out of the yard while Stan took the blue tub inside.

Later that evening, the sound of heavy foot steps sounded on a metal ramp as Stan, John and eventually Darrel moved furniture off the moving truck. Tables and chairs, a bed, a sofa, a television and a stand for it were carefully maneuvered through the front door and into their respective places. Teresa was busy getting the last of the boxes as well as some plastic rolling drawers for what little clothing she had.

Stan walks out and dusts off his hands while John and Darrel sit and watch t.v. for the moment. "Well, everythings in order. Need any help getting the rest of that?"

"Nah, I got it. The rest is just little stuff, agh!" She stutters, the box she carried almost slipping from her hands and books nearly spill everywhere. One book managed to slip off the top of the stack and fell to the ground, it's spine thudding against the brick driveway and falling open.

Stan looked strangely at the book for a moment, but realized that there were words under all that scribble. It was a diary he shouldn't be looking at. "Sorry about that...here you go, all clean." He stated after dusting off the dirt and sliding it between other stacks in the box. "I take it you get real bored when you write sometimes?"

"Huh? Oh...yeah, I do. I always end up drawing construction symbols when I'm bored. A habit I picked up from drafting class, haha."

"I see. Anyway, seeing as how you don't have any kitchen stuff yet, you wanna come over to our house for dinner?"

"You're such a gentlemen! Who are you and what have you done with the chubby kid I used to know? Haha."

Stan softly punched her arm and she recoiled jokingly. "Yeah, sure. Whats your mom cooking tonight?"

"Beef stroganoff. You guys, get off your butts, we're going to eat dinner at our house!" He called and soon John and Darrel were out and ready to go.

Teresa let the guys lead the way and she followed. As she stepped across the line where her driveway met the pavement, she looked over toward the end of her street where the pavement turned to a dirt path. The area was just a small field of grass that trailed off into the treeline. It looked empty...and kind of lonely. The fire of the sunset reflected off the blades of grass as a warm summer breeze blew along. The nostalgic earthy smell of the countryside filled her nostrils. Something about that place held her attention. Something about it's strange darkness among the trees.


End file.
